Life is Strange - Stranger Storms Part 5
by Mahros
Summary: Essentially the start to book 2 of Max and Chloe in Telkia plus their daughter - Emma - and Osira, a friend they have picked up along the way. Highly recommended to read parts 1-4 first but the team have to come to terms with what to do next having sent the people of Bright Horizons home. Some swearing etc (it is Chloe, after all) makes it unsuitable for the youngest.


ONE

Again, Max felt exhausted, as though part of her had been removed and the throbbing in her head felt like someone was driving needles into her brain. Yet, barely able to trust it had happened, she had finally done something good in sending everyone home. Almost everyone.

Chloe appeared as drained as she felt, unplugging Max from the machine with some of her blood spilling from the tubes.

"I'll let Osira know to switch the APC engines off," Emma said but paused at the doorway as Max, leaning heavily on Chloe stood. She did not say anything but smiled warmly and nodded before heading down the corridor.

"What are we going to do about this?" Max asked.

"Let's get up to sub one and have a staff meeting," Chloe replied. "If you're up to it?"

"A slice of pizza and change of clothes and I'll be ready for dancing again," she answered. Together they made their way down the corridor, using Larry the Guard's torch that illuminated a stretched cone as they shuffled along.

"Max, I love you more than anything other than Emma but you can't dance for shit," Chloe told her.

"I'm a time dancer," Max responded, "so not enough moves left for the dance floor." There were now just the two of them present on the lowest level, which was at enough of an angle to make walking seem odd. It was disturbingly still, to the point of feeling like a nightmare she had had back in Arcadia Bay, wandering through the dark with caricatures of familiar people searching for her. Yet, with Chloe beside her, Max felt safe, as though there was nothing they could not do.

Three flights of stairs might test that assertion to the limit, she thought as they reached Larry the Guard's desk.

Emma returned with all the stamina of youth, coming down to help Max climb the stairs.

"At least I know you'll look after us when we're 70," Chloe commented.

"I told you, I'm going to leave you in the hands of a mech. One that looks like David Madsen," Emma retorted, referring to Chloe's stepfather. "I'll explain that you need a firm hand to keep you from harm."

"I knew telling you about him was a mistake," Chloe grimaced but then looked at Max. "Do you know if…"

"Still happily together," Max told her. "Hardly living the American Dream but content enough with their three kids."

"What the fuck?" Chloe responded, stopping and staring at her but Max could not keep her face straight.

"You're walking back," Chloe stated on realizing Max had teased her.

"Money's still tight but they're managing," Max explained. "I called in a couple of times but… guilt at what I did and not having answers meant I haven't been in years. The Two Whales Diner was rebuilt with the insurance money - after some wrangling - and looks as good as new."

"I should have gone while there," Chloe sighed. They passed sub two, dark with dried blood and the sense of fear permeating the area where people had died.

"We both thought there would be more time," Max said as they continued up. "We were being watched and they probably were as well."

"I was gone 17 years and didn't even send a note," Chloe berated herself. "You'd better not do that with us, Emma."

"You know I won't," Emma assured her, "but let's get through the next days before worrying about the next decades."

They entered the room they had made their own on sub one and were joined by Osira and Obix. Chloe had scrawled on the walls 'Pirates of Arcadia Bay' and listed the five of them beneath a skull and crossbones. Max watched her open the flat pizza box, the contents still warm enough that the cheese remained melted, took a piece and passed the rest around.

"Oh, this is good," Emma commented, eating a slice of the pizza. "I think I've changed my mind about returning to Earth."

"No take backs," Chloe grinned, nearly losing a piece of congealing cheese. Then they were sat in companionable silence and Max thought Emma was right. How much did it matter where they were? It was for simple moments like this she had struggled for so long to regain.

"So, what are we going to do?" Max asked. "Do we go to Cowl's encampment, if it's still there?"

"I'm for more," Chloe replied, shuffling round to face her. "Living here has sucked. But now there's a chance of doing more than surviving for the next meal. We have both APCs!"

"So, take over the government?" Max suggested, smiling. For all that she had wanted Chloe and Emma to return to a world that was not an irradiated desert, having them with her felt like a reprieve from the gallows.

"Just long enough to get rid of all the rules and regulations," Chloe responded. "We can trade or explore or both. Let's just pick a direction and drive. Oz, what do you say? Are you with us?"

"I cannot," Osira said, looking up from staring at the now empty pizza box. "The mercenaries were enlisted by the Knights of Liberty," Max looked at her blankly.

"Politics," Chloe spat.

"I like it as much as you do, Chloe Price," Osira commented. "However, you saw what is at stake. To see the other settlements of the Order in flames like Fort Jinyo without doing all I can to stop it is unconscionable."

"Well, one of the APCs is yours," Chloe told her.

"Chloe," Max said. "After all we've been through just this last week, I'm ready for some quiet but I'm with Oz on this. It's not my world but I need to take some responsibility for what has happened."

"Emma?" Chloe asked, standing up to pace.

"I'm in," their daughter said phlegmatically and Max looked at her, sat cross legged against the wall with the reproduction painting. Despite everything that her powers had caused - storms, portals, death, changing things that should have happened - the temptation was to try again to go back and be part of her daughter growing up. Those 17 years felt like experience and life taken from her. Yet, even if she could, Max knew better than to try, especially for such selfish reasons. Chloe had brought Emma up to be capable and resilient. To go back and alter things would change who she was and Max had learned that rarely went for the better.

"Chloe-mom?" Emma queried after a minute of watching her mother pacing. Max felt like an intruder: _hi, I know Chloe raised you by herself but love me too._

"I'm not the voice of reason," Chloe shrugged. "If this last week wasn't enough excitement for you, then count me in too. Oz? What do we do?"

Osira looked at them each in turn and frowned.

"This is not an adventure," she eventually stated. "However, I appreciate you being willing to help. Perhaps I can use you. I mean, you have proved capable."

"Hey, Oz, we don't want to cramp your style," Chloe responded. "We can take the other APC and blow."

"No," Osira said and then sighed. "Forgive me. The idea of you accompanying me is not how I envisaged this. I do appreciate your offer, especially as you have little reason to help, but let me speak with the Viceroy and see what the Order intends."

"We'll want paying," Emma stated. Chloe nodded and Max did the same, realizing that her understanding of how to live in Telkia was close to zero. Going off trying to stop a war was all well and good but having enough to eat was also important.

"One thing at a time," Osira countered. "You should assume there will not be a job for us. Obix and I will head back to Troy. Leave messages on the boards if you depart the area."

"We'll try to trade," Chloe said, "or at least ferry passengers between settlements. Perhaps head east and check in with Cowl. The APC is going to be our home for a while." For all that she loved both Chloe and Emma and had spent only a very hectic week with them after 17 years apart, the notion of living in the confines of the APC for the foreseeable future was unappealing.

"What happens to this place?" Max queried, deciding to keep that last thought to herself.

"We blow it up," Chloe stated, grinning in anticipation. Motherhood and a desolate wasteland had not changed who she was at heart.

"I actually agree with Chloe," Osira commented. "We bring down the top floors and that should stop anyone else finding it while burying the machine without destroying it."

"Awesome," Chloe nodded.

"Perhaps tomorrow, though," Max suggested. "It's getting late and we may as well spend one last night here. If you behave, you can press the firing button." In truth, she felt exhausted, as ever hating the debilitating effect of using her power, even though it acted as a reminder of how easily changing time could go wrong.

"Yes, Max-mom," Chloe agreed, pretending to be chastened.

"We may as well take everything we can first," Osira declared. "While much has drained through the broken pipes in the lowest level, there is still water here and I would like to use some of it for cleaning."

"Absolutely," Chloe agreed. "It's why I stopped the Horizons staff drinking it, after all."

Washing was awkward. There was little water pressure and certainly no heat, while thin paper sheets were the closest they had to towels. Despite that, Max felt relieved just to wash away the dirt and sweat of a week of eating less than subsistence rations, battling mercenaries, using her power to rewind time, shuttling through tunnels and generally trying to survive. A clean T-shirt, if still too big for her, was as comforting. Looking in the mirror was hardly reassuring, however: she appeared gaunt with dark bags under her eyes. Despite wanting to help Osira, hopefully they could spend some time in peace first.

Chloe was waiting for her when Max returned to her room, also cleaned and wearing a T-shirt lacking any design. One day soon they would have to find her something more expressive. Despite her height, the shirt reached to below her waist, emphasizing Chloe's slender legs.

"Max…" Chloe said hesitantly. She had the concerned, vulnerable look to her features that took Max back two decades to Chloe's painful teenage years. "Will you… could we…?" So different to the confident woman who had stood up to Scarrow, Calderwell and Veddan and then got most of the Horizons staff home.

Max moved behind her, exasperated by Chloe's uncertain expression. She kissed Chloe's shoulders and neck around the line of the T shirt. There was the faint taste of cheap soap, markedly different to all those years ago when she associated Chloe with tobacco smoke.

"On one condition, Chloe, my love," Max breathed, standing on tip-toe with her mouth almost touching Chloe's ear. She noted her swallow and nod before continuing: "stop asking as though I am doing you a favour." Max ran her hands slowly, teasingly down Chloe's back then round her waist to her stomach, feeling the woman's breath quicken. Chloe turned to face her, blue eyes looking into her own for a moment with such desire that Max could have loved Chloe just for wanting her so much. Then Max could wait no longer and pulled Chloe against her, lips pressing together.

It was much later that they lay on their makeshift bed, staring at the dimly lit ceiling side-by-side. For all that creating the portal had been exhausting and the hour was late, Max felt wide awake. Perhaps more awake than she had in a very long time. There was almost no noise, less than she might ever have experienced: just four people and a mech in a large building surrounded by vast miles of irradiated desert.

She turned and traced the tattoos on Chloe's arm, the yellowed skull and flowers, running her finger along the outlines. Chloe watched her, amused. She looked closer to before they had been parted by the vortex: older but more content. A step away from the constant expectation of life punishing her.

"You got a tattoo of our names?" Chloe queried and Max lay back, unable to meet her eyes. 'Chloe and Emma' were inked onto her upper arm. Nothing fancy, just hard lettering as though typed on a page.

"Seventeen years is a long time," Max began and immediately hated sounding like she was attempting to justify her actions. "After about ten years apart, I despaired. My rewind powers just did not work at all and I almost felt like I had gone mad and imagined everything. I even went back to Arcadia Bay to reassure myself that some things were real, like your mom, David and that Jefferson was rotting in jail. The town has all changed; the storm wrecked so much that it was almost rebuilt from scratch. I did not stay long, from guilt and too many memories."

Chloe turned to fully face her, listening without speaking.

"Chloe, I met a woman. Despite never socializing. I… gave up on you both. We had a relationship but there was always something missing, either because she wasn't you or because the ghosts of you and Emma haunted the relationship. It hit that 'all or nothing' point and we both knew it was the latter so it ended, agreeably but without keeping in touch.

"It lasted two years and after I got the tattoo as a constant reminder to never again stop trying."

Max closed her eyes, took a deep breath and looked at Chloe.

"I banged two men and three women," Chloe admitted and stroked Max's cheek.

"So, even?" Max laughed despite herself. Yes, it hurt and some of the revelation would take time to make peace with but already there was a sense it would be without acrimony.

"Fuck, Max, you sacrificed everything to get back to us. Yes, we're 'even'. What happens when in a different time period stays there. After a while, I understood that they weren't you. After a longer while, I realised that I didn't want anyone but you so I accepted being with our daughter was enough.

"Grief, stop bringing all this sappy shit out of me," Chloe complained. Max wondered if Rachel Amber had lived, whether things would have been different. In those terribly short few years between leaving Arcadia Bay and the vortex, she had never brought up the murdered girl and Chloe's love for her.

For a while, Max lay watching Chloe looking at her and feeling happy but also desperate to treasure every moment of being together until a content sleep descended on her.

The following morning was packing as much water and uncontaminated machinery into the APCs as possible. Without Obix, it would have taken most of the day and the morning was still closer to noon than dawn before they were ready. The wind turbine was awkwardly disassembled and packed away. It had survived a day and night of funnelling the wind without becoming irradiated beyond what Obix could scrub off. Like much of the equipment built on Telkia, it was sturdy and built to resist radiation.

Chloe scrawled graffiti over the walls of their room, from butterflies and rainbows to making ridiculous claims about Max in bed, perhaps the least embarrassing being referred to as the best lover on two worlds.

"Chloe!" Max objected as her blue-haired love continued, bouncing up and down with happiness.

"Max, I have you and I have Emma and all those Horizons and Wardens are gone," she responded, grabbing Max's arms, blue eyes sparkling like sapphires in the dim light of the room. "Fuck the past and fuck the future, this is one of those perfect moments that makes everything else worthwhile."

"I wish I had my analogue camera but this will have to do," Max said, grinning to see Chloe ecstatic, and took a picture of her.

"Max! It has to be of both of us," Chloe declared and Max took a selfie of the pair of them, making sure there was nothing too crude in the background.

Emma came to see what was keeping them, shaking her head and blushing at the graffiti, which made Max feel uncomfortable too. Another picture of the three of them with Emma in the middle then they finally made their way to the lobby, where Osira was pacing in a rad suit.

The int-soft specialist's impatience was not helped by Chloe scrawling a skull and crossbones on their APC before donning a suit. Even the smallest radiation suit available was too large for max and, like Osira, ended up using tape and string to tighten it enough that she did not fall over. Outside, the car park was mostly covered with sand but Max could see melted tyres on the cars and abrasions on the bodywork were evident even at a distance.

They retreated two hundred yards in the APCs, then Chloe climbed out, followed by Max and Emma. Osira and Obix remained in the other vehicle.

"Does anyone else want to?" Chloe checked.

"Go for it, mom," Emma said.

"Thanks for asking but I've destroyed enough things," Max commented.

Using the silver band, Chloe activated the pre-programmed firing from both APCs. Unlike the keep in Fort Jinyo, the Horizons building was not designed to withstand weapons fire. The rail cannons whined and thudded, hurtling metal slugs at the construction. The velocity of the weapons was sufficient to blast a room-sized hole in the building, followed by several more in explosions of concrete dust until the Bright Horizons building collapsed. The guns had been programmed to bring the construction down away from them and the line of graves. Dust blew upwards in a cloud obscuring the remains.

"That was so cool," Chloe declared but Max wondered if there was a sense of psychologically burying the waterboarding as well as physically hiding the machine that helped bring them to Telkia.

"Come on," Max said as Chloe seemed set on watching the dust settle. "Even in the suits, it's not healthy out here."

Chloe had used Obix to convert the music from a data pad to play in the APC, albeit through the external speakers and chose Amanda Palmer, which was softer than many of the transferred tracks. With both vehicles traveling together at least as far as Shimada Settlement, Max brought up the Lidar. The Horizons building barely registered even from a few hundred yards away.

TWO

"I like them," Obix stated beside Osira. The hard-int programmed him to like all humans and mechs would become upset by someone hurting another person, as though a good friend was being unconscionably cruel.

"I know," Osira told him, still troubled that he showed a tendency to put the Price-Caulfields needs over that of other humans and she could not shake off the image of him holding Scarrow under water.

"You like them also," Obix added. Obix was in the driving seat while she took the passenger side in the lead APC while the music from the other machine reached them. Osira had found it marginally less annoying to have the songs clearly audible than reduce the external receivers to just a dull drone.

"Yes," Osira admitted and wondered if Obix's preference was partly driven by hers. She had studied Obix's software almost obsessively but the mech had ten years of experience, causing it to branch and expand until much was jumbled. Later models were better organised and more efficient but Osira was familiar with how he functioned.

"You appeared reluctant to include them in any tasks we are given," Obix stated, which again indicated how strange he had become over the years. Mechs did not generally prompt conversation, at least not beyond querying what their owners desired. Osira could ignore him and Obix would let the matter drop but, as so often, he was a good sounding board. Still, she waited for a while, reflecting, as the APC rumbled north over the red sand.

"Max Caulfield has an ability that makes no sense and debilitates her, Chloe Price…" Osira stopped and sighed. "Chloe Price is frustrating." Clever, practical, talented and determined not to meet her capabilities. "Emma is most adjusted to Telkia and can hunt but otherwise lacks useful skills. Without us, they would have died."

"That is accurate, Mistress, but we may have died without them," Obix responded.

"Why do you want them along?" Osira demanded. The idea of a mech wanting something was worrying and again Osira considered erasing parts of his memories but it was a false comfort, knowing she would not actually do so.

"I like them," Obix repeated. "With no authority, Chloe Price managed to get most of the Horizons people following her. Emma Price-Caulfield took on Armoured Personnel Carriers with improvised weapons. They got the Horizons people back to where they belong."

Osira noticed he did not mention Max, whose powers disturbed the mech as much as they did her.

"And what if they are creating more anomalies by their presence?" Osira queried, aware that she was being persuaded by the mech.

"Chloe Price and Emma Price-Caulfield were here for many years without any adverse effect. Given that the anomaly at Troy City appeared in conjunction with Maxine Caulfield attempting to return Chloe and Emma to their home, it may be safer to have them here," Obix theorized and Osira laughed. The mech looked at her curiously.

"I will consider it, Obix," Osira declared but knew she had been throwing out reasons not to have them along to counter the emotional desire to have them accompany her.

Dead Star Station was as they had left it and they stayed for only a short break to stretch their legs. Chloe spoke with Legend Thomas for a while, Emma handed out some ration bars from the APC to children and Max took a series of photographs. Osira checked on Hammer the mech, tweaking a few settings but it was still functioning well after their last visit. Obix's blank expression indicated his dislike of her spending time with a different mech, especially searching through its coding.

Although Osira was glad of the rest, when Legend Thomas offered them tea and Chloe accepted, she felt impatient to be off. Conversation quickly turned to the attack on Fort Jinyo and how it would affect Dead Star Station, as well as whether there was trouble in the tunnel.

"I'm sure the Fort could use assistance," Chloe stated.

"We're not going anywhere near there," Laura Galling, the security chief, commented. "There will be hundreds of people there now."

"Why would that be an issue?" Max asked.

"Jinyo always wants to be in our faces," Legend explained. "Wanting to 'protect' us and that means telling us what to do and paying taxes."

"I hear that, Legend," Chloe said and held her fist out. Legend did the same, albeit hesitantly, then smiled at the fist-bump.

"With them stirred up, they'll be even more for mutual cooperation," he stated.

"We might need it," Laura stated. "Imagine if they had attacked here."

"And why didn't they?" Legend responded with the ease of it being a conversation gone over before. "Because we're not a threat. You think they would have gone straight through if we had defence towers and their soldiers?"

"What's your take?" Laura asked Chloe, who held up her hands.

"Woah, my take is: it's your business," she responded. "I'd help Fort Jinyo to get some brownie points but that's it."

"The Grand Order needs to be united," Osira commented, which even Laura Galling did not like hearing, given the immediate shake of her head.

"We're free here," Legend pointed out.

"If war comes, you will not be free for long," Osira explained.

"If war comes, we'll sit it out," Legend responded. "Dead Star Station doesn't care who owns the land above."

Osira was going to argue further, irritated by their selfishness, but Chloe rose and said it was time for them to be going. There was five minutes of farewells, including Max taking a picture of Chloe, Osira, Emma and the two Dead Star Station leaders, then they were on their way again.

The next stop was Fort Jinyo, which proved significantly more difficult to enter as Naddora County had belatedly sent reinforcements. The car park was almost empty of civilian vehicles and a line of four automated tanks with six APCs had taken their place. Osira studied the military weapons and, while far from an expert, they appeared less advanced than the ones taken from the mercenaries.

Kitsuna Kitaka, looking harassed, hurried up to them as they exited their vehicles.

"As a favour because you and Luna helped defend us, I'll warn you: leave those APCs here and we'll confiscate them for study," she explained without preamble. The _Pirates_ immediately took off again.

Hooker Station was a longer rest but, again, there was not the rapport that had formed with the people at Dead Star. One of them asked about the APCs to the point where Osira was getting suspicious and Chloe lied about them being DNA coded. They did not feel entirely safe, for all that it was deeper into the settled areas of Naddora County yet the group had been stuck in the APCs for half a day. Although they spent half an hour stretching and walking, the Pirates stayed close to their vehicles and spoke little with the inhabitants. Chloe managed to scrawl graffiti on a wall about cheapest hookers in all Telkia.

Shimada Settlement saw them separate, with Chloe, Max and Emma remaining there while she and Obix continued. Of course, there were hugs and telling her to take care, which she endured while feeling both awkward and oddly pleased by the affection.

"I've transferred the pictures to Obix," Max told her.

"And I've made sure your APC has all the music you could need for your journey to Troy City," Chloe grinned at her. "Obix, make sure she listens to some."

"That is not within my parameters," Obix objected.

"It will help her," Chloe explained and Osira shook her head, as annoyed by the blue-haired woman thinking that would work on a mech as by trying to get the music played.

"Take care of yourselves," Emma said, "and don't forget about us."

Osira and Obix continued east.

"I like them," Obix stated.

"You said," Osira frowned. Mechs were logical and that extended to not repeating themselves unless they felt their owners needed a reminder. In truth, she missed the Price-Caulfield family as well, even though they had been in a separate, enclosed vehicle for over a day's travel.

Osira had investigated the APC's options sufficiently to be confident of having it do whatever she wanted. Leaving Obix to drive, in so much as the vehicle needed any guidance, Osira found she was at a loss, her thoughts turning futilely to what the future would hold. Much of the following hour was underground but then there was a section of the tunnel that had collapsed, requiring them to travel on the surface for a while. Peering through the vision slits, the area was more verdant, although that was relative. A valley with surrounding hills was sheltered with fields of crops, albeit still with a radiation-shield over it. Mechs worked under the dome, carefully cultivating the plants.

"Obix," Osira sighed, "play some of the music. Something melodic, if Chloe included any."

"Of course, Mistress," Obix responded and his satisfaction was clear.

They reached Troy City after another day of traveling by which point Osira felt confined within the APC. She had studied Obix's soft-int without altering it, reviewed again the operating system of the vehicle and stared out the vision slits until barely aware of the passing terrain. The tunnel had taken them another hour until reaching Terminus, which had not been intended as the end point but where the funding or commitment to build it had stopped.

Along the shores of an irradiated lake, a massive water purification plant, settlements, towns and finally to the capital, passing through the shield wall of crumbling tower blocks. She would never look at them quite the same, having observed similar ones intact and lit, crowding the centre of a city. Even aside from either simply being allergic to the world or a storm of diseases wanting to infect her, the place had been disconcerting. So many people.

Troy City had always seemed unsettling in its size but it would have counted as only a fair-sized town on Earth. She was glad to be home, away from temporal anomalies, storms and other worlds.

"I hope they will be alright," Osira commented.

"As do I, Mistress," Obix responded as they climbed out of the APC. It looked ridiculously incongruous among cars, trucks and trailers. Many were designed for surviving outside the walls with small windows, radiation sinks and thick panelling but the APC still had a sleek yet brutal appearance. Osira made sure the silver circlet was settled on her head, although nothing she had read indicated how far it could reach and still interact with the vehicle.

Being near the entrance to Troy City, message drones were arriving and departing from one of the skyscrapers. Osira thought there were more of them now but it could have been because she rarely paid them any attention. Otherwise, it was as she remembered. People were going about their lives: a woman telling her children off for making their mech get cookies, a man supervising the loading of his truck, a couple arguing about chores. No war to see here.

The Viceroy's office had separate parking but Osira felt desperate to walk and take in the familiar sights. There were a couple of hotels and a bank for storing valuables leading into the main shopping precinct. Like Fort Jinyo and Shimada Settlement, the city had a market with stalls then shops along a curving street, parallel to the surrounding, circular shield wall with the radiation dome above.

Here the mechs were more advanced, including what appeared to be a Pinisi class that interested her enough that she considered chasing it down and checking its make. The shells could make them hard to distinguish but there was a superhuman grace to the Pinisi generation of mechs. Half of the mechs could pass for humans but most were in a variety of outlandish colours. She had heard that the wealthiest people considered it a faux pas to turn up with a mech in the same shell to different social functions.

The main administrative district was in the centre, however, and she walked through the intersecting streets like spokes on a wheel. Wearing a cotton T-shirt and faded blue jeans garnered some attention as denim was unknown on Telkia and the mass-produced style of her top also noteworthy. Even two or three sizes too large for her, it was closer fitting than was fashionable where loose-fitting clothing was common. Only the trend-setters of the next generation seemed to be wearing tighter garments.

Money was still in chronically short supply but Osira treated herself to a pair of lacquered, wooden hair pins. It was not really vanity, she rationalised, rather that the Viceroy always made her feel inadequate and meeting the woman looking shabby would only emphasise that sensation.

The Viceroys residence was her workplace as well as where she stayed, a white-façade to a rectangular building with Doric columns at the front consisting of forty rooms, half of which were given to holding court. It even had a small lawn, a deliberate luxury to awe visitors, although there was currently a goat chewing the grass, which certainly dampened the impressiveness.

There was a guard at the entrance, who checked her identification then Osira led Obix in through one of a pair of double doors. Within was a large entrance area with a reception desk that reminded Osira of the Horizons building except there was a mech behind the counter. A Clipper class male with pastel blue skin, common to many customer service machines as the colour made humans less aggressive in their interactions. It wore a pale beige suit and smiled at her as though Osira's presence made its existence worthwhile.

"Osira Greystream, requesting an audience with the Viceroy," Osira declared.

"Please wait," the mech smiled and indicated a line of seats. There were a pair of bored looking people already waiting and Osira took a seat, studying the stylised paintings of green fields and forests. A bronze statue of a pensive man stood on a pedestal.

"The Viceroy will see you know," the mech announced and Osira almost started as she had expected to wait much longer. Had wanted to, really, but stood, straightened her T-shirt and headed down a side corridor until reaching a mech at a desk with another as a guard behind it. The latter opened the door as Osira checked her hair - why had she thought hair pins would make a difference? She entered the Viceroy's office.

The Viceroy was behind a dark desk, lit by an overhead chandelier, which also illuminated more paintings and statues. The floor had a pale grey carpet with the walls painted in a creamy white but the Viceroy seemed to draw attention to her, standing and gliding around the desk.

As tall as Chloe Price but wearing heels that took her to two meters in height, wearing a dark green skirted business suit and white blouse. She had long flowing brown hair with bangs around a face that was attractive with an aquiline nose but she radiated certainty and walked with a poise that made Osira feel ungainly even standing still. She bowed her head in respect but felt like it was closer to supplication.

"Osira," she smiled, "welcome back."

Osira felt as though she had been weighed, measured and fully assessed. The woman had a piercing gaze, her mahogany eyes studying her as though able to discern Osira's thoughts. The Viceroy appeared to take in everything at a glance, from the silver circlet and lacquered pins in Osira's hair to the worn, pale leather shoes on her feet before returning to holding eye contact.

"Viceroy, thank you for seeing me," Osira responded awkwardly.

"Please, take a seat," the Viceroy offered and sat with her on the guest seats. "Take your time and tell me all."

Osira told nearly everything: following the minute gravity variations to the people from Earth, leading them to the vortex, getting dragged into the vortex, the time on Earth, the return to Telkia and the two battles against mercenaries. It was fantastical but the Viceroy listened without commenting. Osira tried to keep it succinct and factual. She explained the portal was only possible due to the now inoperable machine, which was a half-truth. Of Max's ability to skip through time, she decided it was better to keep that impossibility to herself.

"So, they are here, still?" was the first question, as Osira had suspected it would be.

"Yes but there have been no anomalies since," she answered.

"The Knights of Liberty?" the Viceroy prompted.

"The files indicate they are planning an offensive. This raid was prompted by fear of us having a superweapon," Osira replied. "If the armoured personnel carriers are any indication, they are likely to win."

The Viceroy raised an eyebrow at the last statement and Osira wondered if the woman considered the statement treasonous.

"Do you gamble?" the head of the Grand Fault Order asked and Osira blinked at the question.

"No," she answered.

"I love politics," the Viceroy admitted. "Often it is like playing the person opposite you, trying to read what they have to play and the thrill of defeating them is greater than the actual rewards." Osira wondered what Chloe Price would make of the statement, which the Viceroy delivered dispassionately, as though discussing someone else. She waited for the reason her leader was imparting the insight.

"Unfortunately, I find myself in a new game where the rules are unclear and the stakes very high," she explained then stood up to walk to the large windows behind her desk. Outside was a rock garden, immaculately tended, surrounding a single white flower in the centre.

_Did she practice that precise, flowing walk?_

"I am sending a team west to find out what is happening. Viceroy Hollander of the Expansion Faction has as well, as has the military, the Clear Skies Corporation, Enhancer Mech Company and so on. You will be my ace, however," the Viceroy stated, turning to look at her.

"I do not understand," Osira admitted.

"I know of these other teams, in some cases down to the last detail," the Viceroy explained.

_So others are likely to know of your teams of investigators but you are hoping they don't know me,_ Osira surmised.

"Besides, you are surprisingly successful," the Viceroy smiled warmly, returning to where Osira sat. "Go, explore, report directly to me."

Feeling dismissed, she rose.

"Here is 20,000 for you to do with as you wish with the same again when you return," the Viceroy declared and Osira's eyes widened. It was not a vast amount but more than she could earn in five years and she struggled not to check the transfer. The idea was to spend it bribing people and generally infiltrating the Knights of Liberty then the other half would be her reward but that was substantial.

"Thank you," Osira acknowledged, although it was payment rather than a gift.

"Be careful, Osira Greystream," the Viceroy said, walking to the door and thereby prompting her to follow. "The Knights of Liberty have countered most of our attempts at discovering more about them but what we do know is not promising."

The Viceroy opened the door. Obix was waiting without.

"Thank you again," she smiled, "it is very comforting to know there are unlikely to be more anomalies. The Grand Fault Order greatly appreciates your service." The Viceroy shook Osira's hand then turned to the reception mech to ask the next person in.

Outside the building, Osira walked back to the APC barely noticing the surroundings. She was a pawn being moved by the Viceroy, which was not a problem in itself but felt bound to the Order's leader, whose interests might not be the same as those of the nation. Osira had received a good deal of money but she was aware it doubled as payment for dealing with the anomaly while also tying her to the next mission.

"I am a soft-int specialist," Osira complained and Obix turned his head to see if his input was required.

"We are going to need the Price-Caulfields," Osira sighed.

"That is most pleasing, Mistress," Obix stated, as Osira suspected he would but then added: "you are more content in their presence."

"I do like them, despite everything," Osira admitted, "but I am likely to be dragging them into danger. They are also highly unpredictable and have no loyalty to the Grand Fault Order."

"They are willing to help," Obix commented as they reached the APC. Several people were stood around studying the vehicle, including a cluster of Peacemakers.

"They do not know what they are getting into," Osira said. "Come to that, I don't know what I am getting into."

THREE

Chloe considered that brief time between Arcadia Bay and the portal that tore their family apart. So many wasted months of awkwardness, where she felt unworthy of Max's decision to save her and that being happy was a betrayal of those who had died. So much fear of being with Max: that the nervous, hesitant girl who had left Chloe during the worst years of her life would desert her again. Then, finally accepting they would be together and the portal separated them. She had come to accept it would only be temporary because it never lasted but wanted so much to cling to every second.

"I have missed you, Max Caulfield," Chloe sighed. Normally she did not like to stay still for long, at least without her marijuana medication, but there was something soothing about having her hair washed. They had traded for a week, heading east and usually simply carrying cargo too heavy for drones or passengers desiring secure transportation. The closer to Troy City they had travelled, the more competition there was but they still turned a profit. Most had gone on food but they had bought hair dye and Emma had gone shopping by herself having preferred that to Chloe's suggestion of finding a party. Max had, very reluctantly, expanded the tattoo of Chloe's and Emma's names with a blue butterfly framing them.

"How come I get a sore arm and then get to wash your hair?" Max griped.

"Because you're bad ass and because you like washing my hair," Chloe shrugged.

"Both very true," Max responded and Chloe heard the amusement in her voice. "Only you could get me to have a tattoo."

"About time, Maxo," Chloe commented and sighed as her scalp was more massaged than washed, "we'll get the rest of that arm filled, even if only with flowers and unicorns."

"I am quite happy with just the one, Chloe. Perfection can't be improved on," Max told her and Chloe snorted.

"Perfection? A perfect canvas to draw on," Chloe said. "The next ones I shall do myself. It looks simple: just stab with a needle. I was thinking we could start with a skull and crossbones."

"I'm okay with that," Max said and Chloe knew there was more coming. "Of course, I won't dye your hair and, instead, have it plaited with a pink bow. I'll ask Emma to get you a dress and blouse while she's out there."

"Sure - it would be worth it," Chloe grinned.

"And I'll make sure to confiscate any weed you bring home," Max added.

"Woah, no need to go that far," Chloe objected. "I'll wait until you're asleep and pretend some pixies decorated your arm."

"Pixies, huh?" Max laughed as she rinsed Chloe's hair. The water would be recycled but Max still used it relatively sparingly. They had risked selling some of what they had taken from the Horizons building to get enough money to buy goods for trading, even though much of what they transported was for others. Only Chloe seemed unconcerned with their lack of money, with a mix of pessimism about survival and blanket optimism that more would turn up. The APC was nearly new but there were no replacement parts and was far from Chloe's experience with engines on either world.

"Beautiful," Max declared, coming round in front of her. Chloe suspected 'wet cat' more described her look but could watch Max studying her all day. Those slightly mournful eyes of hers were alight with pleasure above that appealing line of freckles she had to the point where Chloe grabbed a mirror to make sure Max had not done anything outrageous. It looked good and Max had even colored the roots of her hair purple, merging to blue for the rest of it.

Max picked up her data pad and took a picture, causing Chloe to roll her eyes then stick her tongue out.

"That's it, babe, _smoulder_," Max said. "Oh, yeah: gorgeous!"

Chloe burst out laughing.

"You are such a dork."

She felt so much younger and carefree just for having Max with her.

The next day they continued east, although only with a pair of passengers and a crate for delivery. They considered buying and trading but it was impossible to know what was needed until they had passed through. They nearly bought a load of cheap mech parts but decided none of them had enough knowledge of what they were buying. Consequently, they continued to live almost hand-to-mouth, although Emma's shopping had been new clothes for all of them when the idea had been for their daughter to treat herself.

At Troy City, they found a meeting place with an electronic notice board. It was an open area of sandstone, including statues of people who were meaningless to any of them. There were hundreds of messages but a quick search revealed one from Osira.

"Well, we have a job, it seems," Chloe said. "Absolutely no details or indication of pay but who needs that, right? Also, we're back on the clock: Osira will meet us at Fort J in five days. I have a couple of stops to make first."

The first was near to the vortex that had hidden their way home.

"I caused all this?" Max asked as they stepped out of the APC wearing the red rad suits. The area looked like an ancient bomb site with twisted girders and the skeletal outlines of buildings. Further out, the constructions were more intact but all had been abandoned.

Chloe turned to face her, the suits now tucked in to just about fit them. She considered downplaying it or hedging the answer but it was not how she would want to be told and Max was stronger than Chloe had once understood.

"Yes," she said. "Most escaped and you did not know what the effect was at this end but, yes, the portal caused a weird storm."

Max nodded and Emma hugged her, despite the awkwardness of the suits.

_Are we villains? _Chloe wondered. _I've done shit I'm not proud of and other shit I shouldn't have that I enjoyed doing but I would knowingly do this to get back to Emma and Max._

For the first time, she did not envy Max having the power to rewind time. The weight of making decisions that left people dead was scary.

"Perhaps we can do some good," Chloe said. "Go with Oz, get caught up in things we shouldn't, but put a stop to whatever the Lib Knights are up to.

"Anyway, we're not here for a guilt trip."

Even without some messed up vortex whipping around the place, it was difficult to find her bearings but Chloe recognised enough land marks to find a battered RV. Although it had been less than three weeks for her, over a year had passed on Telkia and their home had not done well. Already old, it had not been in the best of condition even before waste runners shredded the back of it. Now it was rusted, scoured and irradiated.

There were few bits to take and even they seemed to belong to a different lifetime but they needed to recover their clothes. Fortunately, the radiation had not penetrated into the drawers. Clad in rad suits, Chloe and Emma scooped up what was usable as Max looked around the RV that had been home for so many years.

The last thing she took was her necklace of three bullets, left in a drawer for years.

"Remember what I said they represented?" Chloe asked Max, with Emma curious even through the rad suit.

"Three rounds for the three loves of your life: Joyce, me and Em," Max replied.

"They're live rounds and I thought you were dead and I had no clue about my mom," Chloe said, "so I took it off and Emma stayed alive. Stupid superstitious shit but too important to chance." She had utterly loved her father, William, but he had died before she got the necklace.

"We're all alive," Max said.

There had been another, of course: Rachel Amber. She was twenty years dead - murdered - and the bullets had come to represent moving on. Stood in the trailer, Chloe wondered how different life would have been had Mark Murdering Bastard Jefferson not come to Arcadia Bay. Telkia had pushed out that world but Max's return had stirred up memories, bad as well as good.

Turning to leave, she saw Max and Emma talking about Chloe teaching their daughter to drive at the age of 12, barely able to reach the pedals but grinning like it was a holiday. She recalled Emma scraping the RV against a rock, driving too fast and turning to her in concern.

"We'll fix it," Chloe had smiled at her and then both spent the best part of a day patching it up while wearing goo-smeared rad suits.

She waved Emma and Max round to the front to point out the panel.

"I thought you would be so mad, Chloe-mom," Emma said.

"Why?" she responded, perplexed.

"I broke our home!" Emma explained. "You'd been saying to drive slower and I didn't listen. Like that time with the baby Razorback."

Chloe laughed.

"That time, I was scared, Emma. The RV could always be fixed - well, perhaps not now - but a radiation-fried Razorback that was as big as you and with its parents likely to be close? I was frightened to death you were going to be gored. And the frigging thing started to follow us home. You were begging to let us keep it."

"He was cute," Emma objected, laughing.

"He had tusks as long as your arm," Chloe countered.

"A perfect guardian!" Emma responded.

_Grief, I am so happy, _Chloe thought. _It almost feels wrong._

"Come on, we've got a couple more stops to do then a fast, hard drive to meet Oz. You know she'll leave without us," Chloe said.

Moshie was overjoyed to see them and actually had tears in his eyes while Moira again cooked them a meal. Chloe could barely breathe in his bear-hug of an embrace.

"Shit, girl, I thought you were dead for sure," Moshie said as they sat at the same table as before. Chloe had to keep reminding herself that a year had passed. Unlike before, there was a trucker already present, eating, but he kept to himself and soon there was _No Below_ was playing on the truck stop's music box. Chloe suspected Moshie only played 'her' music when she was present.

"That damn tank scared us," Moira added, with more than a little accusation.

"Well, the RV's totalled, so we needed a new ride," Chloe explained. "If the Rox gang has given you any shit, we'll go and blow them up."

"They've been cool," Moshie assured her. "Rox was even asking after you."

"If he's on for starting anything…" Chloe began.

"Heck, no, Chloe," Moshie replied. "I think he likes you but would never admit it."

"Oh. Well, that's alright, I guess. Nothing quite like having psychopaths rooting for you. This is Max, my wife-for-life, greatest friend and personal time dancer."

"You're Max? It is great to meet you," Moshie said and Chloe grinned at seeing Max almost disappear into his embrace. "No wonder Chloe looks so perky."

"Good to meet you, too, Moshie," came Max's muffled voice. "Sounds like I have some big expectations to meet."

"I thought you'd be 10 feet tall and throwing lightning bolts from the way Chloe talks about you," Moshie laughed, a deep rumbling noise.

"Only when I put my superhero costume on," Max smiled and looked at Chloe, who felt her cheeks redden.

"I might have mentioned you once or twice," she shrugged.

Moira brought them food - eggs, a bacon-like meat and tubers - then joined them. Around mouthfuls of food, Chloe encouraged Max to tell them of Earth.

"So, you can just get on an aeroplane and fly?" Moira queried.

"You can just walk down the street with no cover?" Moshie asked.

"If you ever figure out how to get back there, let us know," Moira declared.

"There's a lot that's good but if you're poor then you're poor," Max warned them. "You won't be registered anywhere and work is getting really hard to find. Don't get me wrong, just lying on grass in a park under the sun is… well, something unappreciated until I came here. At the end of the day, though, you have to make a living."

"We were hunted by a corporation with little legal reason," Emma added.

"But blue skies all the time. Shops full of food," Moshie sighed. "Being able to get on a bus and travel without wondering if the rad sinks will last or who or what is going to attack you. Heck, girl, I wouldn't need a job."

"You would get one though," Moira stated and he briefly frowned at her but both soon returned to a dreamy look of imagining the paradise that was Earth. Chloe nearly put them right, what with surveillance, poverty and pollution but let them fantasize.

"Tell me more about the food," Moshie insisted.

"So, my cooking isn't good enough?" Moira responded but clearly teasing.

"Just getting some ideas for the menu," Moshie answered and Max, with help from Chloe, told them of the variety of foods from around the world, sometimes having to explain what things were, such as rice and bamboo shoots.

"And they farm cows for the meat?" Moshie asked, shaking his head. Chloe was so used to vat grown meat or hunting wild animals that the she had actually forgotten there were farms with herds of animals on Earth.

It was closer to evening before they left, several hours behind schedule but with Moshie giving them free top up for the batteries and Moira a packet of pita sandwiches for their next meal, despite Chloe's protests. Then they were traveling through the night, awkwardly sleeping where they could inside the APC. Already it had lost much of its military feel with Chloe drawing a doe on one inside wall, the seat arms replaced by a board with bedding and buckets for water and clothing ready for washing.

Emma slept in the passenger chair while Max and Chloe took a converted line of seats each, with the vehicle driving itself, waking as they approached Cowl's Encampment.

"Armed individuals detected," the computer announced. "Recommend activating rail cannons."

Chloe put the circlet on. The makeshift beds they had created were better than what they had in the Horizon's building but only just. Aching muscles competed for her attention. Every day should start with a joint and it had been weeks since her last one. She would even have lit a year-old one if it had been in the RV.

Red and yellow icons showed around the perimeter of Cowl's.

"They're friendly and tell them we come in peace," Chloe told the computer through the headset.

More reunion, more fear-turned-to-anger relief followed by catching up but Chloe found it silted compared to Moshie's. Most had moved on to the point of assuming she was dead. If someone disappeared, there would be conversations about maybe they had found somewhere better to be or struck it rich while knowing they were almost certainly dead.

Yet Chloe had returned and there was… envy, she realised. They were glad she was alive and would not want it otherwise but the people were distant. For her, these were people she had been talking to three weeks ago, not even that, but for them she had been gone a year. There were over thirty people so a few were genuinely glad to see her but even they had moved on. Perhaps it was more accurate to say she had moved on more in three weeks than they had in a year, as though Chloe had become wealthy and returned to the old neighbourhood in a flash car and expecting those hanging around for the jobless stipend to be happy for her.

A few, like Shara, wanted to come with her, which irritated others. Chloe picked up that Cowl had organised a raid on another camp only for it to be a failure, although no-one had died. Now, he seemed reluctant to want her back and, when he did offer, his eyes slid to the APC.

"Fuck, Cowl, I crossed half the Blood Desert to see you guys and you're actually pissed off I'm alive?" she responded. They were still stood outside in rad suits, another indication of not being welcome.

"Of course we're glad you're alive, Chloe," Cowl said, "it's just…"

"Hey, try practicing that line a bit more," Chloe snapped at him. "You might manage to make it sound like you mean it."

"It's just that you were gone for a year," Cowl continued, "then you roll up back here like nothing happened. Look, you can have your old spot back." Again, that glance at the APC and Chloe imagined him slavering.

"What? Without begging or anything?" Chloe responded and Max moved up to touch her arm. She was like a carbon rod that instantly cooled her in a way that was almost unsettling.

"Times have been tough," Cowl said. "Food is always tight and I have to balance the needs of the group but I said you can have your place back. What more do you want, Chloe?"

"I don't know, maybe some actual pleasure at me not being a skeleton out on the sand?" Chloe replied and sighed. "Just give me some of my weed back and we'll be gone."

"Come into my trailer and we'll talk," Cowl offered. Again that glance at the APC and that was without knowing it had rail cannons. She had spent over ten years at Cowl's encampment, pretty much from when Emma could start to look after herself. Cowl had let them in when others would not and always been laid back, arguably too easy-going as leader of the group. Nonetheless, for a moment, Chloe wondered if she could trust him but it was not in his nature to just shoot them outright.

"Alright, Cowl, but we really aren't staying long. Miv, I see you hiding over there. You owe me a couple of plants," she called, "then we'll call it even."

Often restless when part of the encampment, especially in the early days, Chloe had been to all the trailers, hanging out to chat and Cowl's was familiar to her. The woman inside was not.

"Chloe, this is Kote. Kote: Chloe, Emma and...?" he introduced them.

"Max," Chloe's love introduced herself and Cowl looked at Chloe in surprise.

"Yes, _the_ Max," Chloe confirmed while looked at Kote, who was ten years younger than Cowl, perhaps a bit more than Luna's age. Dark hair streaked with highlights, milky-coffee coloured skin and hazel eyes, she was pretty but not striking. She stared at them before nodding.

"I've heard all about you," Kote said by way of a greeting, then smiled to imply the comment was not as bad as she made it sound, looking up at the silver circlet on Chloe's head with a flicker of avarice.

"How's it going Emma?" Cowl asked.

"Lots of being stuck in a vehicle with Chloe-mom, interspersed with life-threatening excitement," Emma replied evenly. "Not dissimilar to being here."

Cowl snorted his amusement and looked more how Chloe was used to. Kote's eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Well, it's good to see you. Both. All," Cowl said. The place did have a neater, more feminine touch but Chloe felt it was too organised with insipid colours and pictures.

"So, tell me about the girl who stole Cowl's heart," Chloe said as Kote brewed some tea. The woman looked at her suspiciously as though uncertain if she was being mocked.

"The light of my life," Cowl beamed. "We were trading with Rane's camp and I saw her. I know it's sappy but she's the first woman I've wanted since Amira."

"I'm happy for you, Cowl," Chloe said. "We won't stay long."

Kote handed them tea, which tasted weak but everything had to last and even tea leafs would be reused until there was no flavour left. The curtains dividing the living area where they were and the private section at the back of the trailer had been changed to pink with white flowers. On the one hand, it was long past time that its dark grey predecessor had been thrown out but, on the other, it felt like everything that was Cowl's had gone. Certainly the picture Chloe had drawn of him and Amira had disappeared but also a clay statue of a naked woman, the ash trays and even an oddly shaped skull Cowl had found.

"So, why did you come back?" Kote asked, smiling but only Chloe saying she would be leaving soon had brought any warmth to the woman's face.

"Fuck," Chloe replied, "I'm here to see my friends and check everyone is okay and show Max where our daughter grew up. We'll be gone soon enough."

"That and to pick up some of the encampment's marijuana," Kote observed, again with the smile that was supposed to make the comment friendly.

"If you like, yes, to get some of the weed that _I_ grew in _my _trailer that _I_ traded to help Cowl's encampment," Chloe replied. "Why don't you take a walk?"

"This is my home!" Kote objected. "Cowl!"

"Look, just take it easy, please, both of you," Cowl sighed. "I've not seen Chloe in a year and you should see the wicked APC they have."

"You're taking her side?" Kote exclaimed. Chloe had caught the additional flash of annoyance on her face at the word 'wicked', the proper use of which she had taught them.

"We'll go," Chloe said and attached her hood.

"You can stay a while yet," Cowl told her but was soon arguing with Kote to the point Chloe, Max and Emma's departure was barely noticed. They chatted to a few others and Miv brought two thin, bedraggled marijuana plants.

"This is one of the hardiest plants I know," Chloe sighed. "How the fuck do you manage not to grow a weed, Miv?"

"Missed you, too, ya blue-haired freak," Miv responded but affectionately. He had always been one of the people she had got on with least but now seemed genuinely pleased to see her. "The place hasn't been the same without you. I know Cowl's new bit takes some getting used to but she cares about the encampment. Don't forget about us as you move up in the world."

"Miv, you stoned dope, stay safe and try to save some for trading," Chloe returned, holding up the ragged plants and shaking her head.

Shara was seventeen, only a little shorter than Chloe and twice as wide with muscles from working out every day. Yet she had a deft touch with a brush and a high-pitched, deferential voice at odds with her appearance. They spent the best part of an hour going over pictures she had painted, including an unrealistically attractive one of Chloe herself. Max took photos because of course Max took photos, while Emma chatted to the men and women of her generation. The latter made Chloe think about how much their daughter needed more people of her age about instead of having adventures with her parents.

There were offers to stay the night and more genuine than when she had first arrived. However tempting it was to annoy Kote by staying, they had a lot of distance to cover and there really was nothing to stay for.

Cowl came out in his rad suit to see them off.

"I know I was a bit of an ass but I mean it, come back whenever you can," he said but it sounded more like the result of arguing with Kote and wanting to annoy her, which would quickly vanish.

"Sure, I don't know exactly when but we'll pop by when we can," Chloe agreed but it was more to later worry him than any likelihood of visiting soon.

They climbed into the APC and drove off back across the Blood Desert with Chloe thinking on Kote as she sat in the driver's seat manually controlling the vehicle.

"What was her problem?" she eventually asked, at least partly rhetorically. "We'd never even met."

"Chloe, she was threatened by you," Max replied and Chloe looked at her in surprise.

"But she knows we are together and that Cowl and I never got sweaty," she said, the last part causing Max to roll her eyes.

"Mom, not on the romantic side," Emma explained. "Kote wants to run the place through Cowl and, if they have children, for them to inherit the leadership. It's not hard to imagine Cowl saying 'Chloe recommended this' and 'Chloe got the Rox gang to back down' and 'Chloe told me not to trust the Stormriders' and 'Chloe got our stuff back' and…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Chloe stopped her. "It wasn't like that."

"Actually, mom, it pretty much was," Emma responded and Chloe shook her head at their daughter's blinkered loyalty.

"Ah, so that's where the new leader of the Bright Horizons staff came from," Max smiled. "I was so impressed by the way you got them together but you'd been practicing."

Chloe flipped the APC to automatic and headed into the back where Max and Emma were, going past them to the two sickly plants to hug them to her chest.

"I shall call you Little-Emma and you Little-Max and you shall have all my love," Chloe sighed, although just the smell of them gave her cravings.

"I think we've been replaced," Emma said to Max as she was taking a photo.

FOUR

Emma climbed out of the APC and stretched. Designed for twelve men in rad suits, the interior was spacious but close to two days in it was pushing the limits of comfort, especially when they took passengers and cargo on the return to the east. There was, however, greater profit as Troy City produced more goods wanted in the smaller settlements than vice versa.

Chloe-mom and Max-mom had almost argued over spending what they were making, on predictable lines with the former saying they should enjoy it while the latter wanted to be cautious. Almost inevitably, they had turned to her as arbitrator.

"Don't put me in the middle!" she had complained. "Compromise: save a bit; live a bit."

At Shimada Settlement they had gone to a bar and had a few drinks, her and Chloe on beer, Max on wine with a band playing on stage, including a singer who had more enthusiasm than talent. She watched as they had danced together, Chloe-mom with sinuous abandon that showed up those half her age and Max-mom with little more than a shuffle but both grinning and laughing. A handsome young man asked Emma to dance and she accepted, glad to let loose herself after the confines of the APC. Perhaps not wanting to get in her way, Chloe and Max left soon after, both giving a thumbs-up and giggling like they were kids. Emma pretended not to be embarrassed.

The man, perhaps a little younger than her, was very attractive but knew it. At one point he asked where she got her hair coloured and seemed sceptical that it was natural. That aside, he complimented her often, showed interest and plied her with beer but she was careful not to get too drunk. She loved Chloe-mom greatly but it sometimes felt frustrating to have a parent that would let her do what she wanted. In response, Emma had perhaps become too cautious of what the results of her actions would be and she wondered what having Max-mom around would have been like. Part of the trouble was Chloe-mom encouraging her to enjoy whatever she liked at the same time as telling how special Max had been.

In the end, after the bar had closed following a couple of slow dances, Emma let him go a bit further than she wanted and a lot less then he wanted. However pretty he was, it was unlikely she would see him again. An empty promise to hook up next time Emma was in Shimada and then they went their separate ways. She crept into the APC and was relieved both Chloe and Max were fast asleep.

Back through Fort Jinyo, again barely halting long enough for Emma to go with Max and check the notice board while Chloe stayed in the APC, parked between two large trucks. The place still seemed in shock, the market partly cleared with new stalls set up in one section but heaped, blackened remains over the rest. There was trade, however, as the presence of a hundred Defence Force soldiers boosted custom. The central keep had scaffolding and mechs working on repairs, the trapped smoke under the rad-shield dissipated and soldiers patrolled the streets. Despite that, the sense of safety had gone and Fort Jinyo really did feel like a military outpost than a backwater town primarily concerned with trade.

"I want to help," Max sighed, looking up at the soot-stained, jagged top of the central keep.

"Me too, Max-mom," Emma said and caught the woman's wistful smile, knowing she was again thinking of the long years apart.

"Max, you were here," Emma told her. "I know it was in a way that sucked for you but Chloe-mom spoke of you so often, it seemed like you would enter our RV at any time. It took longer - a lot longer - but you are home, not an outsider."

"Thank you," Max smiled and rubbed Emma's arm affectionately. "Not being there is like this gaping hole, some hideous reality that should have been different, yet you've grown up so balanced. Don't tell Chloe that I sounded so surprised."

"I won't," Emma promised as they walked. "Looking back, it was hard on her, more so because Chloe wanted to still go and have fun but she put me ahead of everything. I took that for granted for a long time."

"I feel like an intruder," Max admitted and Emma looked at her in surprise. "Chloe would so often rant about David Madsen being in her life, then remember he saved me, at least in one reality, but I think she still wanted to hate him."

Emma laughed, clearly surprising Max.

"Max-mom, he replaced someone Chloe loved. Also, he did sound a bit of a dick to be around, even filtering out her bias. I know this kind of sucks to hear but we've both waited 17 years for you to come back, even when Chloe thought you were dead, and now you have."

"Thank you, Em," Max smiled. "You know, Madsen was actually happy Chloe and me were a couple and he and Joyce fell in love with you immediately when we visited. I can never repay him for saving me in… the Dark Room and I so want to like him but, yeah, he was still kind of a dick to be around.

"He said we had to look after you and bring you up right and Chloe had to stop smoking, none of which is wrong but ordering us to do so… well, it irritated me and Chloe just started yelling at him and he shouted back about raising a child being too important for her to be selfish. Then Chloe had a go at me for not supporting her enough. It was pretty much like that every time we visited, starting off well and even apologising but then one of them would say something and the other would get angry. One time Joyce and I just let them go at it while we sat in the garden."

They had reached the Fort Jinyo message board and searched through for information, finding a note from Osira saying she had gone to Kotari Bridge and would wait for them there. They checked for people and cargo wanting transportation west but most wanted to go in the other direction, heading away from any potential conflict. There was a solitary man requiring transport to Kotari Bridge and a couple of packages, one of which seemed suspicious - although whether drugs or something else was harder to tell. Given they were short on time both in Fort Jinyo and to reach Osira, as well as planning a reconnaissance mission to a foreign land, they settled on just taking one packet west. Emma hoped Osira's quest paid well or they might have to turn around.

It was walking back that they passed a shop selling herbs and herbal medicine.

"I want to pick up Chloe some MJ," Max commented causing Emma to look at her with surprise.

"We kind of had a deal. Chloe would stop smoking completely, while I would get a tattoo and she could still take cannabis by other methods," Max explained.

"I think Chloe-mom got the better deal," Emma told her.

"If it stops her getting lung cancer, I'd make any deal," Max responded and Emma could not disagree with that.

"Can I see? The tattoo?" Emma asked and Max rolled her sleeve up. The outline looked red from the recent injections and it was having to work around her and Chloe's names but the tattoo of a butterfly was still beautiful. The blue of the wings were almost the same colour as Chloe-mom's hair.

"That's really pretty," Emma commented.

"I'm far too old to be getting tattoos but you know what Chloe's like," Max said yet her tone held deep affection.

"She takes an objection as a challenge," Emma smiled. "In this case, she was right. It's very well done and who says how old you have to be?"

"Thanks," Max accepted, "come on, let's see what they charge but don't tell Chloe: I want to surprise her."

Emma talked with Max as the APC drove west through the tunnel to Dead Star Station again, which was the last exit to the surface before the tunnel came to an uncompleted end. Chloe was searching through the APC's menus, trying to expand on what Osira had taught.

"What's it like having the power to rewind time?" Emma asked, causing Max to laugh. Initially, Emma had liked her as much for being more human than Chloe had made Max out to be but there actually was just a hint of something more in her grey-blue eyes.

"Frightening. On the surface, it should be something incredible but the cost is terrible," Max explained. "It's why I want to help find out what the Knights of Liberty are up to. Yet, I am scared that I am putting myself in a position which will cause me to use it again and what the effect will be."

Emma nodded.

"Let me try something," Max said. "After all that I've said, I'm going to try something reckless but I need to know before we have to rely on it. Chloe, I'm going to try to rewind time," she called and Emma stared at her.

"Grasp my hand," Max instructed and Emma did so as Chloe was moving into the back, concern on her features.

Max held out her other hand and Emma watched Chloe go backwards until she was again sitting in the passenger seat. She then got up again and joined them.

"Okay, I don't know why you are doing it but I'm ready," Chloe stated.

"That was… powerful," Emma said. "In the wrong hands, it would be terrifying."

"You…" Chloe stared at them and Max again held her hand out. For a moment, Emma waited for something to happen but the contemplative expression on Chloe's face made her understand that it already had.

"The first time, I asked you to stand and turn around, which you did," Max explained and Emma disliked the idea that there was a part of her life that had been, in effect, erased.

"I know it's what you can do but that's kind of scary, Max," Chloe said. "Cool, awesome and scary. Shit, I want to do more of it. I know, I'm not saying to do it now but, still: sweet."

"There's a chunk of your life gone that you didn't experience," Emma countered and Chloe shrugged.

"I wasn't even sure it would work but I wanted to test while we were together," Max explained.

"Like Emma said, you need keeping out of the wrong hands," Chloe grinned and winked by way of indicating whose hands she should be in.

"Don't forget I feel like I'm throwing a dice every time I use it," Max said. "This… ability separated us for 17 years and then needed a machine to make it work again."

"That was different," Chloe said firmly. "The portals are not the same."

"Only partly," Max responded. "And I only tried to rewind when you were thrown here. Besides, it's all messing with time and having detrimental effects. I have to be careful."

Emma moved from the seats opposite and sat next to Max, taking her hand.

"I trust you to do what's right," she told Max.

"That's just it," Max sighed. "I don't."

Kotari Bridge was in two parts, the larger of which was on the eastern side of a wide gulch. It had probably been a river in the past but now was just a dried riverbed, albeit one the population had covered with a rad shield for growing crops. The bridge was of pale stone some one hundred feet across, arching over the gap and joining the two halves of the settlement. Consisting of domed buildings, the town was the size of Fort Jinyo, albeit with two tall towers, one at each end of the bridge and covered in antennae. A strong sirocco was blowing hard and sending sand whirling like dervishes trying to get past the walls surrounding the settlement.

A barrier was angled up at the entrance with a Grand Fault Order APC beside it. Fully tracked with flat sides and top, aside from a low turret with twin machine guns, it appeared basic even to Emma as she studied it through the silver circlet. Their APC lacked any artificial intelligence but Emma thought it still seemed excited as it reeled off information about the other vehicle, highlighting it in red and recommending preparing for engagement.

Chloe was swearing and grumbling as she overrode the computer's automated response.

They passed into an inspection area, just within the protective barrier and opened the hatch. Chloe hopped out, stretching.

"Grief, I need a new RV," she declared.

"Chloe Price?" a soldier checked. Emma watched a pair of them approach, clad in fatigues and helmets. Assault rifles were slung over their shoulders, which showed how much security had tightened since the attack on Fort Jinyo but they were more at ease than she had expected.

"My fame precedes me," Chloe answered with a bow.

"Osira Greystream told us to expect you," the guard explained, unamused by Chloe's theatrics. "She's waiting for you at the Bridge Inn."

"How did they come up with that name?" Chloe responded.

"Because there's a bridge over the chasm," the guard told her, frowning and completely missing the sarcasm.

"Right," Chloe said and re-entered the APC to drive it past the now raised barrier.

They parked next to Osira's APC in the main lot just past the entrance and Emma punched the door open then paused as Chloe kissed Max. She had no idea what prompted the action, just that Chloe-mom cupped Max-mom's face and passionately kissed her.

"I'll just be out here," Emma said after a while, "continuing with the mission to save our homeland. Join me when you feel like it."

They separated, Chloe jumping out and looking around the settlement while Max remained in the APC, breathless but her expression lit with surprised pleasure.

"Aside from a hundred-foot gap, this is pretty much like Fort J.," Chloe opined and clambered up the wheel of the vehicle to stand on its roof.

"Oz's APC is now beige-coloured," Emma noticed.

"There's a setting to change the camo," Chloe explained, peering at the town. "That looks like a tavern. Em?"

Emma climbed up and joined her as Max closed the door to the APC, carrying the solitary packet they had transported.

"Looks promising," Emma agreed. "From the description, there's the store that wants the package."

Unlike some of the other settlements where the stores and market had set up near the car parks, Kotari had them around the end of the bridge while the residential buildings were in two semi-circles around them. Small, cottage industries were dotted about, making clothes and simple goods.

"We can bring more complicated goods from Troy City and Shimada to here, sell, and return with raw materials," Emma noted.

"Hopefully Oz has enough to give us some start-up money, once we've saved the world," Chloe nodded. "It's nice up here. Hey, Max, bring some snacks up, will ya?"

"Shouldn't we find Oz?" Emma queried but was using a circlet to check the radiation level of the vehicle. It remained low but not the ideal place for a picnic.

"We should," Chloe nodded but still only reluctantly made her way down. "I bet chowing near the chasm's better anyway."

The three of them strolled through the town, which had a few people and mechs walking about yet seemed very provincial after Troy City. As with most of the outer settlements, they were small enough that vehicles were not required to traverse them. Instead heavier items and passengers were carried by mech-operated rickshaws, a bizarre mix of modern and ancient that they all looked at with interest. Some of the mechs were liveried and a pair of orange-skinned, blue-suited female mechs went past pulling a four-wheel cart with a refrigerator on it.

The mechs smiled in unison like clones in gratitude for the trio of humans letting them past. Max took a photo of them.

"We need a mech," Max decided as they continued.

"I thought you didn't like them?" Chloe queried.

"They still seem kinda creepy," Max admitted, "but useful and Obix caused me to reassess."

"I don't want you getting fat and lazy on me, Maxi," Chloe said.

"Well, I do," Max replied, smiling as they reached the tavern. Three storeys high with an antennae on top of its domed roof that had small windows, the Bridge Inn was one of the taller buildings in the settlement. A picture of the Kotari bridge over the gorge was on a signpost outside its pale grey façade. The picture was either a photo or mech-created from one, showing the arching bridge, side of the ravine and buildings on the other side. The _Pirates_ were all wearing circlets and Emma could see in her mind's eye that Osira was inside. It had taken some getting used to having the device transmitting directly into her mind.

Osira rose as they entered, smiling more warmly than Emma had anticipated as the soft-int specialist was normally sparing with her emotions. Obix stood with her, requiring Emma to remember his outer appearance had changed.

"I have been paid for solving the anomaly… for us solving the anomaly," she amended at Chloe's look as they seated themselves at a table. That other world, which she had seen for a week, made everything in Telkia seem different. Of course chairs were made from carbon fibre, why would they not be? In that other, semi-familiar place, plastic, metal and even wood had been used for the frames. Chloe turned one around to straddle it and rest her arms on the back.

"I will divide the money because of your assistance," Osira stated. "You did, after all, jump into the vortex."

"Uh huh," Chloe responded.

"Chloe," Max objected, "the money is Oz's: she doesn't have to give us anything."

"If we're rich, let's eat while we discuss," Emma suggested.

"I don't suppose they have pizza," Chloe mused and waved for a stone-coloured mech in maroon clothing to come across. There was vat grown meat available as usual as it was mostly made using solar energy and nutrients, while the vegetables and salad were scarce and expensive.

"I admit, if you could open a portal for pizza, that would be a reasonable use of your power," Emma nodded then wondered if it was something to be mentioned where anyone could hear, although the tavern was not particularly busy.

"Yes, very responsible," Max smiled. "Perhaps not inside a bar though."

"So, Oz, whatcha got for us?" Chloe asked as soon as they had ordered.

"I have thought on this for a while and the notion that the world and humanity is recovering," Osira started. The silver circlet was on the soft-int specialist's head again but Emma found it uncomfortable to constantly wear and put hers on her lap. Osira's hair was now held in a bun by lacquered wooden pins and Emma liked their style.

"The fight for resources is now returning to national conflicts…" Osira continued.

"Oz," Chloe interrupted her and Osira frowned, then sighed.

"Very well. The Viceroy of Troy City Oblast has asked me to investigate the Knights of Liberty," Osira explained after checking no-one was near.

"What do you know of them?" Max asked.

"Nothing," Osira admitted. "The computers in the APCs had more information than I knew. You need some background, Chloe Price, but I will try to be succinct. The idea of nations like in your time does not truly exist here. If you asked anyone, they would claim to be part of Fort Jinyo or Troy City or whatever settlement they lived in. The Grand Fault Order is… more a collective than a state."

Emma nodded and considered how she thought of herself as belonging to Cowl's Encampment, even now, than the ephemeral notion of the Grand Fault Order.

"I consider myself relatively well informed but these eastern settlements? I had barely heard of Naddora County, let alone Callic District or Fort Jinyo. Even Shimada Settlement was a meaningless name. The Knights of Liberty are likewise new to me: any conflict has been with the waste runners or the eastern tribes, running raids across the nominal border," Osira explained. "The dangers were like the crimson hyenas: a problem but not existential. Now, we have someone appear on our other border that we had ignored and they are powerful enough to give advanced weaponry to a mercenary gang."

Food came and Emma ate but her mind was on what Osira had said, as she suspected was true of the others. The notion of going off on an adventure had been intoxicating. There were only so many places Chloe had been able to take her around Cowl's encampment and most of those had definitely had a desert vibe. Despite wearing rad suits, the trips had been a great chance to explore, although it had reinforced the sense that they were crazy to the rest of Cowl's encampment.

Now, Emma felt they were out of their depth.

"So, we turn up there as traders?" Chloe asked, bringing Emma out of her reverie.

"One moment, please," Osira responded and waved to the mech. "Tea for four in a pot."

"Tea?" Chloe queried, voicing Emma's curiosity.

Osira appeared to consider for a moment, then smiled and explained: "everything is better with tea."

Emma wondered if part of the reason was to make Chloe wait, which she did impatiently, leaning back on the rear two legs of her seat, now facing the correct way around.

"Its 'herbal' tea, right?" Chloe asked.

"No, Chloe," Osira replied then answered an enquiry from Max about the trip to Troy City.

"I never feel quite comfortable, there," Osira admitted. "The Viceroy is one of the most important people in the Order. That aside, it was quite unremarkable, driving through the settlements we have seen. Ah."

The last was prompted by the mech returning with a pot of tea and four cups. Osira allowed it to brew for a while and then poured for each of them, an oddly intimate gesture.

"Now, we can discuss," Osira declared, looking satisfied.

"Shoot," Chloe said.

"The trouble with pretending to be traders is the vehicles," Osira stated. "They are military. Worse, they are nothing like we have in the Order."

"We'll bluff through," Chloe responded. Osira looked at her flatly, then looked down at her tea for a moment before peering up again.

"So, I am a Knight of Liberty…"

"Lady Liberty," Max said and Chloe laughed, perplexing Emma as much as Osira, which only increased her parents' mirth. Osira folded her arms and waited for them to finish.

"And I ask why you have our armoured personnel carriers," she managed.

"'They're our APCs and, if you don't back off, you'll see the twin rail cannons," Chloe responded and Osira sighed.

"Chloe, please take this seriously. We are going to be… spying on a hostile power," the soft-int specialist said after another check for people being close. They had taken a seat near a small window with background music playing but people occasionally came in and mechs could detect what they were saying from some distance away.

"Fine," Chloe accepted throwing her arms up. "Dude, this isn't one of your APCs, it's an old Grand Fault Order one we bought to trade in."

"It has our design," Osira stated. "The programming is ours."

"I don't know anything about that, man, I'm just a trader," Chloe responded with a slight nasally whine. "Why are you all up in my face? Perhaps they reverse engineered it or whatever or its one they captured and didn't want. All I know is that I got it cheap. Yeah, I bet those bastards ripped me off, selling me a truck that was stolen."

"Encore! Bravo!" Max applaud.

"Well, you convinced me," Emma laughed.

Osira rubbed her head, pushing up the silver circlet.

"What choice is there, Oz?" Chloe asked. "They attract far too much attention but they're ideal for the journey we have to make and whatever we face at the other end."

"What if we disguise them?" Emma suggested.

"I can change the colour but that won't fool sensors," Osira responded, dismissively.

"Oz, I mean a disguise. Break up the outline, stick some, I don't know, antennae on them…" Emma expounded.

"It still won't…" Osira began.

"We can put plates over the sides," Chloe nodded enthusiastically. "I've seen enough long haulers in the wastes to know that the vehicles have bits sticking off the sides. Cover the turret hatch with some ceramic dome or wire mesh, stick a longer exhaust pipe on or a shorter one to give it some noise…"

"We can use the two APCs' sensors to see if it works," Max pointed out as Osira was about to speak, which caused her to reconsider. Emma held up her hand to stop Chloe-mom from saying anything further to let Osira mull the idea over.

"It is worth a try," Osira admitted after sipping more tea.

"I'd prefer 'that's a fantastic plan' but we'll take the win," Chloe grinned and gave Emma a thumbs-up before downing her tea in one swig.

FIVE

Max peered down at Chloe from the roof of the APC and took a sheet of ceramic plating, attaching it with adhesive to the top of the vehicle. Obix was doing much of the work with tireless efficiency but Chloe was in her element, colouring the plates and directing where they were to go when not directly shaping them with a saw before smoothing with a plane. It was more difficult to curtail her wilder ideas, such as joining the two APCs together into one elongated transport or adding more guns to them.

"No-one would go out there without being tooled up," Chloe had objected. "Even if just for show, a machine gun or, better yet, a mini-gun would be ideal. Then, if someone asks us to disarm, they'll think that's all we've got."

"And how would it be manned?" Max had asked as Osira had shaken her head.

"We can create a new turret on top, over the real one," Chloe had responded.

"Let's just hide what they are and get going," Max had laughed.

Even with Obix cheerfully doing the heaviest work, it was a time-consuming, tiring task that. Watching Chloe paint and varnish a picture of a doe, then hammer the plate into place, Max was amazed by how committed to the task she was. It almost got too much when Max, Emma and Osira wanted a rest only for Chloe to insist they keep working.

"Chloe, we're having a rest and so are you," Max stated.

"Sure, sure, just let me finish this," Chloe said. Max saw she was back to wearing the three-bullet necklace, which stood out all the more for being against a plain top.

"This is an intervention," Max responded and knelt beside her. For a minute, Max thought Chloe would still refuse but annoyance faded in the pair of cerulean blue eyes as they beheld her.

"What happened to us being in a hurry?" Chloe asked.

"Take a break, my love," Max insisted. "It's nearly evening."

"Well, for a while, then," Chloe accepted and then winced as she got up, peering at the APC. "It's really looking different. Come on, Obix."

"Obix is as content working as not doing so," Osira pointed out. "More so."

"If this is a team break, Obe's in," Chloe stated and Osira threw up her arms. The gesture was so similar to Chloe's that Max had to suppress laughing in response.

The land under the rad shield was so precious that there was little that was not given over to food, homes or businesses but a small area was available near the edge of the gorge. There were three separate rad shields, one for each settlement and another for the crops in the valley between.

"It's actually green," Max observed. "Or would be without the shield." Lines of wheat grew in rows in the valley, fed by vapour collectors on the sides.

"There are places like that, sheltered," Chloe nodded, munching on the sandwiches Max had made earlier.

"Like the Cave of Stools," Emma commented making Max laugh.

"The what?" she asked and Chloe waved a half-eaten vat-chicken meat sandwich by way of indicating Emma should explain.

"I was about eight and we found this cave with toadstools and mushrooms," she said. "We had no idea if they were toxic but Chloe-mom bestowed it with 'Cave of Stools.' It was a great hideaway and place to stop but we stopped going after a while."

"A tiger-lizard moved in and a big one at that," Chloe recounted.

"I remember!" Emma exclaimed. "We were heading in and it came out snuffling and hissing!"

"Scared the crap out of me," Chloe said.

"You two really had no end of adventures," Max smiled, albeit with that bittersweet sting of missing out.

"Emma got bored at the encampment," Chloe declared.

"_I_ got bored?" Emma objected. "I'd be playing with the other kids and you would decide it was time for a road trip."

"It's not like they weren't welcome," Chloe said.

"It took years before their parents stopped thinking you would get their kids killed if they went along," Emma responded.

Chloe made to steal one of Max's sandwiches and she snatched it away from her reach.

"What happened to wanting to keep working?" Max asked.

"I was hungrier than I thought," Chloe replied and Max handed the sandwich over anyway.

"Way to take all the fun out of it," Chloe said but was grinning and tore it in two, giving part back before eating the remainder.

"You know, you don't have to eat like a pig just to impress me," Max commented.

"Max, you get the full Chloe Price experience," came the response. "Hey, Oz, are you finished with that?"

"No," Osira frowned at her and turned away to protect the sandwich she had been nibbling on.

Max brought out a data pad and took a picture of the others as the sun was setting. The rad shield and clouds stopped it being a perfect 'golden hour' for photos. She froze for a moment. Twenty years ago she had tried to set the timeline 'right' and save Chloe's beloved father William. That one had resulted in Chloe paralyzed and slowly dying. She had set it back to normal - or returned to her reality - but not before walking with Chloe in a wheelchair and discussing the 'golden hour.'

_Whatever I did wrong, I've paid enough. Just let me be with them," _Max thought while Chloe and Emma were reminiscing about the terrible stuff the meat-growing vat at Cowl's encampment produced.

At a tavern, Osira reluctantly paid for simple and somewhat cramped rooms where the décor was basic and sounds from downstairs filtered up to them.

"Oh," Max sighed, lying on the bed. "I will never take beds and showers and faucets for granted ever again."

Chloe took a photo of her sprawling using the data pad.

"Hey! That's my job," Max complained.

"This is really easy," Chloe responded, looking at the data pad. "All that 'angles, lighting and refraction' stuff you go on about when it's just a case of pointing and clicking."

"Shh! That's a photographers' society secret!" Max told her.

"Besides, you looked cute. Particularly cute," Chloe grinned and joined her, taking a selfie of them both.

"No make-up, scruffy clothes, hair that's not seen a brush since this morning, nicks and scratches, dirt and dust and all topped off with the aroma of spray paint really does it for you, huh?" Max laughed.

"Well, I couldn't get… ah, what was her name from Blackwell? Always pranced around like she owned the place and everyone was her minion," Chloe said, looking up at the ceiling. "Wardrobe so expensive it could pay to feed a small nation."

"Victoria Chase," Max supplied.

"Yeah! That was her. Victoria 'I love being a bitch' Chase," Chloe nodded. "Shit, that takes me back."

"She wasn't so bad. Just screwed up. I wonder what happened to her," Max considered, putting her arm around Chloe as they stared up at the white plastered ceiling with its strip of LEDs.

"Oh, so having an excuse allowed her to act like shit to everyone?" Chloe responded.

"You did," Max said and looked to see if Chloe took offense.

"Ouch. I know," Chloe sighed instead.

"You had a lot more reason than being obscenely wealthy," Max observed. "You know in that… nightmare place I mentioned? When things got really weird as the Arcadia Bay storm was closing? One of the images was of you making out with Victoria."

"Ha!" Chloe exclaimed and turned to look at her. "You never mentioned _that._ So, that's what turns you on. Me and Chase. Well, it's not going to be easy to arrange…"

"You doofus," Max laughed. "What part of 'nightmare' did you not understand? Even knowing everything was deliberately tormenting me, I still got jealous."

"I still don't get how you crushed on me so hard and so fast after…" Chloe faltered, not wanting to again bring up the fact that Max had not spoken to her in the five years she had been in Seattle.

"It was and is easy," Max smiled. "Like you say, though, here and now is all that matters."

"Well, if that's the case, could we make love, again?" Chloe asked, looking at her intently, as though searching for some reluctance.

"As long as you're not thinking of Victoria Chase," Max replied while wondering where she got so much energy.

"Jeez, so many restrictions," Chloe sighed melodramatically while kneeling on the bed, taking her top off and tossing it across the room. "'Don't ask as though it's a favour', 'don't think of other people'." Her bra followed, leaving just the bullet necklace above her waist.

"Hey, put the frigging camera down, Max!"

The following morning was working on Osira's APC, using adhesive to apply more plates decorated with Chloe drawing all-seeing eyes, pyramids, ravens and whatever else took her fancy. One panel had the stars and stripes, making Max nostalgic for her country. The graphene armour of the underlying vehicles was almost impervious to the available drills and even the glue did not stick well. Between them, the group had come up with a lattice that sat on the armour and applied the adhesive mostly to where the ceramic plates connected with each other.

"One good storm and it will all collapse," Emma stated as Max studied the vehicles late in the afternoon.

"Let's hope for clear weather," Max nodded. Chloe and Osira were inside their respective APCs while Obix was apparently receiving non-audio instructions from the latter.

"I'll settle for not leaving a trail of ceramic plates behind us," Emma smiled. The vehicles were almost unrecognisable with aerials and longer exhaust pipes, sand bags and even a flag that Chloe had crafted from a towel. She had been one of the first awake with the dawn light of the new day, even before the tavern staff, then decorating the disguise, having evidently dreamt up more ideas overnight.

"How are you doing? I know it's belated but both the fighting in the Horizons building and in Fort Jinyo was… not something I wanted you to experience," Max finished lamely. The first time Emma had fought Max was unconscious and the second time she had miles away collecting parts from Shimada Settlement. Emma was quiet while she contemplated an answer and Max studied her: naturally pale skin almost translucent from the limited daylight contrasted by dark red hair tied in a ponytail, only an inch or so shorter than Chloe with a round face flushed with youth.

"Are there any pictures of you growing up?" Max asked and a pair of green eyes regarded her with amusement.

"Unfortunately," Emma replied and entered their APC to where Chloe had dropped a box of their belongings. Chloe was in the front seat, checking how Osira's APC looked to their sensors. Max's daughter rummaged around and held up a picture of her pouting as a teenager, complete with red lips and pink cheeks. It had been painted quickly but showed Emma with a shock of frizzy hair and wearing a reddish-brown animal skin top.

"I'd traded one of her MJ plants for make-up," Emma explained. "She accused me of theft, I accused her of hypocrisy, she painted me wearing make-up."

Max held the picture, fascinated by Emma in the middle of the time between last seeing her and now.

"You know I would have let you had you asked," Chloe piped up from the front. "Looks good Oz. Yours is registering as civilian."

"It was so frivolous," Emma sighed. "We could have had a week's worth of food. Somehow, I figured it would be okay if the plant just went 'missing'."

"Obe, can you shift the top panel… no the one to the left, yep," Chloe was saying, conversing with him through the headset but speaking out loud despite not needing to.

"I'm good," Emma answered Max's earlier question. "I mean, it was not something I'm keen to repeat but, well, Chloe-mom being nearly drowned was the worst. I killed someone and I can remember him but its mom being drowned that sticks with me. I don't know if that's right."

"I don't know either," Max smiled sadly and rubbed Emma's arm, "but it stuck with me more than anything else, too. I can rewind time and still could not stop it."

"That's good," Chloe was saying. "All we have to do is drive several hundred miles without it falling apart. Should be easy."

Emma embraced Max, slightly awkwardly in the confines of the APC, surprising her but there was more forgiveness and acceptance than words could have managed. With some form of her time-changing powers working again, the temptation to change the past flared up again. To try to go back and warn herself of what would happen so Chloe and Emma always stayed on an Earth that had clean water and more food than was good for people and clear skies, green fields, clothing so cheap you could wear it once and discard it, goods so inexpensive they were easier to replace than repair…

Even if she could and it worked and none of the horrors of the last time she successfully managed to alter the past happened, then the Emma who was smiling warmly at her would be different.

"Come on, Maxi-mom," Emma said. "Let's see if everything is good to roll."

The adaptive armour below had been changed to show as rusted, scratched and dark instead of the camouflage to match the desert. Anyone touching it would immediately notice it was smooth and undamaged but, even knowing it was a disguise, Max thought the armour looked decrepit under the outer shell of Chloe-painted plates.

"Looks a complete mess in a good way," Max considered. Both APCs were barely recognisable but they had a long way to travel.

"We need to shift one of the top plates to clear the solar panel," Chloe shouted.

"What if we get mirrors?" Max suggested, putting her head into the APC and getting a thumbs-up.

"I like it," Chloe agreed. "The mirrors will still keep the outline hidden but power levels up. I'll see what Oz thinks is the best way of getting them angled."

Buying and fitting mirrors to angle the light through the ceramic plates to the solar reception panels took more time but working with the other _Pirates_ made the effort easier. Perhaps not the bonding session she would have chosen but a striking contrast to evenings alone constructing the device to create a portal to bring Chloe and Emma back. She handed a two-foot square mirror up to Emma, who passed it to Obix to fit into place with a precision no human could match.

"Shouldn't it be more to the left?" Chloe asked, climbing onto the APC to inspect. To keep the light focused, the mirrors had to track the sun, which proved difficult given how difficult it was to attach directly to the armour.

"This is the optimal angle, Mistress Chloe," Obix informed her. "However, I can adjust if you prefer."

"No, you got this, Obe," Chloe responded but studied the modification for a while before dropping down again and going to the other APC. With the sun going down, there was only a few last changes.

"Max, you and Emma get some supplies for trading," Chloe called. "We'll bring the APCs round when ready as a test."

They discussed what to buy while walking towards the market district, deciding that furs and skins had the best chance of being sellable as the Knights of Liberty were unlikely to need any manufactured goods. Even though it was only a cover for their activities, Max wanted to make a profit and Emma agreed. Chloe was caught up with personalizing the APCs that they could have bought bags of candy and she would not have noticed. Osira was also unconcerned with trading beyond it being a realistic subterfuge.

"If they only sent those mercenaries because they thought the Order had a superweapon, this could be a long-term solution," Max considered. "Opening a trade route between the Order and the Knights."

The lack of response betrayed Emma's scepticism.

"You don't think it's a good idea?" she queried as they looked at pelts, some bleached, some that looked like cowhide but others that were so strange as to seem to come from a truly alien world.

"A lot has to go right and be right for it to happen," Emma answered. "Despite knowing little, the Knights launched an attack that resulted in many deaths, including Bright Horizons people."

Despite the stall owners and shopkeepers trying to get them to buy, they stuck to going around comparing prices. On Emma's suggestion, they tag-teamed when they finally settled on what they were buying, with Max saying she they could not afford the prices while her daughter pushed to purchase as a means of bartering. Max thought about getting a chip implanted to allow her to complete transactions but still rebelled at the notion of permanently accepting living on Telkia.

With crated boxes of leather and untreated skins bought, they informed Chloe via the circlets and she brought the APC up.

"Well, it survived a journey of a hundred yards inside a dome without falling off," Chloe commented as they started loading.

"Then tomorrow morning we go west," Max declared.

36


End file.
